Gasland2

In the original 2010 film Gasland, director Josh Fox profiled hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, the process of injecting a pressurized mixture of water, sand and chemicals down a drilled well, causing layers of rock deep in the earth to crack and release natural gas. The film inspired a national dialogue over the multi-layered environmental dangers potentially at risk. With GASLAND PART II, Fox examines the long-term impact of the controversial process, including claims of poisonous water, earthquakes and neurological damage, placing his focus on the people across the globe who say their lives have been irreparably changed. Traveling from the Gulf of Mexico to the heart of Texas (including Dish, home to free TV service and some of the highest concentration of gas wells in the nation), out to Los Angeles (where fracking for oil is now occurring), and back up to the Delaware River basin (where he has a family home), Fox investigates the effects of this extraction method, as well as the industry’s reaction to negative allegations.

The film provides startling claims that fracking may lead to earthquakes in communities that have never experienced ones before. Video footage shows wells venting methane (a powerful greenhouse gas) into the atmosphere in massive amounts. The film also shows how the practice of fracking has gone global, as seen in a visit to rural Australia, where stoic farmers assert that their wells have been turned into potential flame-spewing gushers. And as gas drills multiply, clean-energy options are being passed over – like hydroelectric, wind, and solar, which some experts say can provide enough energy to power the world five times over.

The film argues that the gas industry is using its wealth and power to influence government policy on fracking, while buying the silence of countless American homeowners forced to move out of their longtime homes because their water has become too polluted to drink.